Title
Incorporated County of Los Alamos Code Ordinance No. 02-346: A Code Ordinance Amending Chapter 31, Procurement, to Increase the Threshold Amounts for Certain Approval Authority; and Amending Chapter 40, Utilities, to Remove the Incorrect Reference to the State Procurement Code
Recommended Action
I move that Council adopt Incorporated County of Los Alamos Ordinance No. 02-346; I further move that, upon passage, the Ordinance be published in summary form.
County Manager's Recommendation
The County Manager recommends that Council adopt Incorporated County of Los Alamos Ordinance No. 02-346.
Body
The County of Los Alamos adopted its own procurement code as found in Chapter 31 of the Los Alamos County Code of Ordinances. This procurement code was last substantially amended in 2020, however, the threshold amounts for certain approval authority has not been reviewed or amended since 2008. Since the adoption of this procurement code, there has been a substantial rise in inflation resulting in rising costs. The revision to the procurement code would adjust these authority levels in an amount similar to inflation over the same period and is needed to meet the changing needs of the County, improve the efficiency of the procurement process, and ease administration.
The proposed changes include:
1) delegation to the County Manager or designee, the authority to execute contracts in the amount of $ 300,000 or less (previously was $ 200,000 or less)
2) for utilities department, delegation to the utilities manager or designee, the authority to execute contracts in the amount of $ 300,000 or less (previously was $ 200,000 or less)
3) for utilities department contracts, the authority granted in 2 above is subject to the Board of Public Utilities approval when the amount is $100,000 or more (previously was $ 50,000 or more)
4) small purchase thresholds are also adjusted to $20,000 (previously $10,000) and $60,000 (previously $50,000) and these guidelines are...
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